7 - Sühne: The Theory and Practice of Peacemaking

Summary

German practice in the sixteenth century was catching up with the more centralised systems that had existed in France and Italy since the fourteenth century - punishment was in theory severe but in practice the system was governed by the ubiquity of pardons and out-of-court settlements. The significance of the reforms was to give the state greater purview over private settlements. Sovereign authority was enhanced by the exercise of grace through pardons and remissions. But there were some peculiar features about the peace in the feud in Germany. This chapter sets out the traditional practices of Sühne, its interaction with the law and the church, and some reasons for its decline in the seventeenth century. Like other northern Europeans, Germans did not develop the sophisticated ethico-political treatises that the problem of violence encouraged in Italy, and the domain was largely left to moralising sermons. But during this period, educated Germans were exposed to new stoic ideas about peace. German ego-documents are especially rich in their ruminations on quarrels and the ups and downs of litigation and peacemaking.